Buxtehude: Membra Jesu nostri

It is often the context of the music-making that distinguishes its character, and the near ideal conditions of a choir of young singers (helped by performing in the excellent acoustic of Jesus College) together with a quintet of singers who share that background and the strings, lute and keyboard of Orpheus Britannicus, joined by the Newe Vialles viol consort in the subdued Part 6 (Ad Cor) provide a very coherent group of musicians for this tense, yet restrained masterpiece of early German Baroque oratorio.

I admire the
overall sound – there are no prima donnas here, nor the sense that this is just
another routine performance. The intensity of it all is maintained by the
experienced and capable direction of Andrew Arthur, as is the sense of the
different chori – well laid out in the structure of the work as it is in the
performance. His scholarly and helpful essay is a key element in the liner
notes, revealing where and how Anders von Düben transcribed this work from its
tablature original of 1680 into staff notation. This is complemented by a
revealing note on the Latin text by Francis Basso, which is then given with an
English translation. Details of pitch, instruments and tuning complete a model
booklet.

The major
decision for anyone directing Membra Jesu
nostri is whether to use single voices throughout or to use a choir as well
as a group of solo singers. Using a choir of bright, young voices and placing
the instruments and single voices in the foreground gives a good balance and a
clean distinction between the two vocal groups. The choir sings with conviction
and clarity, no individual voices stand out to spoil the cohesion and they
reflect their director’s precision and their regular experience of singing in
the small Chapel at Trinity Hall. This is ideal.

The singers
charged with solo lines sing well with each other in the duet and trio sections
while retaining their own individuality. Nicholas Mulroy’s distinctive voice
never has to over-sing, and Daniel Collins is a good match for him in tone and
intensity. His leading of the almost Purcellian moments with their tightly
wrought suspensions like the trio sections towards the end of Ad Manus (which
were given to the solo singers, unlike the SSA passage at the opening of the
final tutti section: I love it, but why?) gave these moments a richness that
made me wonder about using the choir at all: the ATB sound is so rich! It was
perfect in sit tamen gustatis in Ad
pedes, the first number where the choir is tacet. To hear Reuben Thomas on his
own you have to wait for Ave verum
templum Dei where he sings with the strings – the effortlessness of his
bottom notes is miraculous.

Eloise Irving, the first soprano, sings beautifully, with a clarity and grace to which Charlotte Ives responds with a warmer tone; in the duet and trio sections, the contrasting tone colour (unlike the identical tone of S1 and S2 in the choir) offers a genuine contrast, and helps colour the words, which all five solo singers enunciate with exemplary clarity. The choir might have copied this – especially in the homophonic quasi-parlando sections – to advantage. The obvious benefit of a many-voices choir is demonstrated in the long, seamless, fluid lines of the final Amen.

The strings
are perfect: I have never heard the Sonata
in tremulo in Ad Genua so beautifully detailed by the violins, and the
reedy quality of the bass violin is a perfect complement in this music. Their
wonderful relaxed cross rhythms in the opening to Ad Latus are a model for how
to play this brief sonata.

The viols in Ad Cor made a dark contrast, introducing the SSB vocal complement for this number with its rich chromatic suspensions and a piano end like BWV 106. Their reedy tone is not dissimilar to the sudden change to a regal and trombones in the underworld in L’Orfeo. There is such wonderful variety of mood and expression in this pioneering work, and we should be glad that it has received such skilled and musical a treatment. If you want a recording to complement a six-voice performance, I recommend this CD wholeheartedly; and in its own right it is a fine advertisement for this director and his college choir.